The present invention relates to a shielding apparatus and, more particularly, to a shielding apparatus connectable between a circuit board and a connector having pins connectable to the circuit board.
Many military and non-military electronic products require circular connectors as rugged external interfaces to interface with other devices. To minimize cabling and assembly costs of these products, the connectors are often attached directly to printed circuit boards (PCBs). Due to the soldering process, however, a gap is frequently left between the metal back of the connector and the PCB. The PCB is often designed to block this electro-magnetic interference (EMI), but the gap still allows all the short exposed pins to act as receiving and transmitting antennae. This causes test failures and can interfere with the proper operation of the products (or adjacent products).
The problem of the gap between the PCB and the metal back of the connector has been traditionally solved by physically quarantining the connector PCB in a separate metal housing. This can work in some applications but is often a bulky, heavy and expensive solution. Other options involve placing small metal canisters around the connectors themselves. This is done with very thin sheet metal that is soldered into place. Such canisters can be an effective EMI barrier but still require that the connector be mechanically mounted to the PCB.